Here is a 4-trophic level food chain example: Sun -> Grass (1st trophic level/producers) -> Deer (2nd trophic level/primary consumers) -> Wolf (3rd trophic level/secondary consumers) -> Eagle (4th trophic level/tertiary consumers)

1. ECOLOGY
By:
MARIA KRISIA
FAE DELOS
REYES DE ASIS,
BSN-RN

2. ECOLOGY
- Derived from the Greek word
oikos meaning “house” or “place
to live” introduced by Ernst
Heinrich Haeckel
- Science of interrelations
between living organisms and
their environment

3. ECOLOGY
- Study of the relation of
organisms or groups of organisms
to their PHYSICAL and BIOLOGIGAL
environment
- “environmental biology”

4. ECOLOGY
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
- includes light and heat or
solar radiation, moisture, wind,
oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients
in soil, water, and atmosphere
BIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
- Organisms of the same kind and
other plants and animals

5. IDENTIFY:
A group of any one kind of organism?
Answer:
POPULATION

6. IDENTIFY:
Includes all of the populations
occupying a given area?
Answer:
COMMUNITY

7. IDENTIFY:
Includes all of the earth’s living
organisms interacting together with
the physical environment as a whole?
Answer:
ECOSPHERE / BIOSPHERE

8. IDENTIFY:
It is the capacity to do work or bring
about change?
Answer:
ENERGY

9. IDENTIFY:
A community consisting of plants,
animals, and microorganisms that
interact with one another and with
their environment?
Answer:
ECOSYSTEM

10. COMPONENTS
+ BIOTIC or LIVING COMPONENTS:
> Producers – can make their own
food
> Consumers – eat other organisms
for food
> Decomposers – obtain
nourishment from dead matter

11. COMPONENTS
+ ABIOTIC or NON-LIVING COMPONENTS
– provide nutrients for the
ecosystem to function
Also remember:
> Ecosystems are systems in which
there is a regulated transfer of
ENERGY and a controlled cycling of
nutrients.

12. SUN
HEAT
ECOSYSTEM
PRODUCERS
CONSUMERS
HEAT
HEAT
ABIOTIC
NUTRIENTS
ENERGY &
NUTRIENTS
DECOMPOSERS
HEAT

13. TYPES OF CONSUMERS
PRIMARY CONSUMERS
-Herbivores
-Feed directly on green plants
SECONDARY CONSUMERS
-Carnivores
-Feed on the herbivores
+ detritus
= waste material of an ecosystem

14. TROPHIC LEVELS
= from Greek word trophos meaning
“feeder”
+ Autotroph – “self-feeder”
+ Heterotroph – “other-feeder”
o Herbivores – consumers of green
plants
o Carnivores – consumers of herbivores
o Omnivores – consumers of both plants
and animals

15. TROPHIC LEVELS
o FIRST TROPHIC LEVEL
– green plants
o SECOND TROPHIC LEVEL
– herbivores, omnivores
o THIRD TROPHIC LEVEL
– carnivores, onmivores
o FOURTH TROPHIC LEVEL
– secondary carnivores

16. FOOD CHAIN
A series of organisms made up of
the different trophic levels that
creates a continuous transfer of
energy

18. FOOD WEB
A set of interconnected food
chains by which energy and
materials circulate within an
ecosystem

20. POPULATIONS AND
COMMUNITIES
+ DOMINANCE
- results when one or several
species control the environmental
conditions that influence
associated species
+ DIVERSITY
- Involves the number of species
in a community and how these
numbers are apportioned

21. POPULATIONS AND
COMMUNITIES
+ STRATIFICATION
-“layering” than occurs in a
community
- Ex. Grassland: ground layer and
herbaceous layer
- Ex. Forest: ground, herbaceous,
low shrub, low tree and high
shrub, lower canopy, and upper
canopy

22. POPULATIONS AND
COMMUNITIES
+ HABITAT
- the place where particular
plants or animals live
+ NICHE
- the functional role of a
species in a community

23. POPULATIONS AND
COMMUNITIES
+ BIRTH RATE
- the number of young produced
per unit of population per unit
of time
+ DEATH RATE
- the number of deaths per unit
of time

24. POPULATIONS AND
COMMUNITIES
+ GROWTH RATE
- Influenced by births and deaths
o When births exceeds deaths
= POPULATION INCREASES
= (+) POPULATION GROWTH RATE
o When deaths exceeds births
= POPULATION DECREASES
= (-) POPULATION GROWTH RATE

25. POPULATIONS AND
COMMUNITIES
o When births equals deaths
= POPULATION REMAINS THE SAME
= ZERO POPULATION GROWTH RATE
+ EXPONENTIAL GROWTH
- Occurs when a small population
is introduced into a favorable
environment with abundant
resources (OPPORTUNISTIC SPECIES)

26. COMMUNITY INTERACTIONS
= various population interactions
that tie the community together
= have major influence in
population growth
= SYMBIOSIS
1. COMPETITION
- When a shared resource is in
short supply, organisms compete,
and those that are more
successful survive

27. COMMUNITY INTERACTIONS
2. PREDATION
- the consumption of one living
organism, plant or animal, by
another
3. PARASITISM
- two organisms live together,
one drawing its nourishment at
the expense of the other

28. COMMUNITY INTERACTIONS
4. COEVOLUTION
- the joint evolution of two
unrelated species that have a
close ecological relationship
- the evolution of one species
depends in part on the evolution
of the other
- a.k.a.
Adaptation
or Mimicry

29. COMMUNITY INTERACTIONS
5. MUTUALISM
- Coexistence that results in
mutual benefits to the
interdependent organisms
6. COMMENSALISM
- an association between two
different kinds of nonparasitic
animals that is harmless to both
and in which one of the organism
benefits

31. PLEASE PREPARE FOR A
SHORT QUIZ … 

32. question:
Capacity to do work?
Answer:

33. question:
What is the Greek word
meaning “house” or
“place to live”?
Answer:

34. question:
What are the two
components of the
ecosystem? Enumerate.
Answer:

35. question:
What are consumers of
both plants and
animals?
Answer:

36. question:
What are the 6 types of
community interactions?
Answer:

37. question:
What is the functional
role of a species in a
community?
Answer:

38. question:
A series of organisms
made up of the
different trophic
levels that creates a
continuous transfer of
energy?
Answer:

39. question:
Give an example of a
food chain with four
trophic levels. (5pts.)